An epic adventure in all things nerdy.

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Clash of the Titans

Unfortunately, Clash of the Titans wasn't playing in 3D IMAX anywhere local (I'm not sure if it was available in 3D IMAX anywhere to begin with), so I saw it in 3D in a really big theater, which I guess is kinda close. Anyway, overall, I was pretty disappointed with the movie, my biggest reason being the entire plot was extremely serendipitous, it was just one fortuitous coincidence after another. Of course, it is Greek mythology, which by near definition is always serendipitous without explanation, I know that pretty well, being named after a Greek epic, I've read a lot on it. So going into it knowing my mythology more than the average Joe, I will give them credit that they got the facts (or fiction, in this case) down more or less throughout the whole thing, and they did give good nod to the old 1981 movie.
 
I don't know if it was seeing this movie after being so pleased with How to Train Your Dragon, or being warned by my friend Rush in advance that it wasn't that great, but I'm pretty sure I went into this movie with the wrong attitude. I can see where this had all the intentions of being an awesome movie, but the whole time I found myself nitpicking little things, like continuity errors, plot holes, the way you could never tell what was going on because the camera was all over the place, or that there was a ludicrous amount of glow effects used every time gods were even vaguely involved. Plus, as cool as I think 3D is, and I mean as an added dimension of depth, not as a crutch for an already crappy movie, I don't know if it was well executed in this movie. 3D glasses have a bit of a dark tint to them, and this movie had plenty of dark scenes, so those moments when I had no idea what was going on, were made worse by the fact I felt like I was watching the movie in the dark on an old Game Boy screen. All complaints aside, it was still full of plenty of incredible  special effects, fast-paced action, and Liam Neeson in all his sparkly glory, so not a total loss.


There's not much plot to this movie, and it's an old story, but for all my griping, I'd still recommend this to anyone who enjoys some good ol' giant monsters, epic battle, apocalyptic heavy action and doesn't give a crap about the plot. For the rest of you, wait and rent it. I really doubt anyone's going to be at the water cooler come Monday saying, "Oh my GAWD, did you see that movie Clash of the Titans? It's the better than Lord of the Rings AND Star Wars!" Besides, if you do ever hear someone saying anything like that, you should promptly punch them in the eye just on policy.

On a side note, this movie is way better than what the rest of the kids at my school were doing this weekend.

10 comments:

  1. the action is much better in 2d. the 3d makes it more difficult to follow the fast motions. it loses all the cgi details for some reason and makes all the flesh actors/actresses seem like a 2d cutout standing in a 3d world.

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  2. We watched things in the opposite order: Clash last weekend and Dragon this weekend. We walked out of Clash thinking it wasn't bad... but wasn't good. After watching Dragon, it just... immediately started to pale in comparison.

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  3. Isn't Clash of the Titans the story of Perseus?

    So that's the Gorgon's, Medusa, Cassopeia and Andromeda, plus the prophecy.

    How can they screw that up? If I remember rightly not only do you have at least two good monsters, the issue of free-will versus destiny, magic treasure, and human sacrifice, there is even a pegasus in some versions, if Bellerophon is already dead.

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  4. @amaximus: I think it was because they delayed release to offer it in 3D, I don't think they filmed it with 3D in mind.

    @Rush: Yeah, I guess anything pales in comparison to the awesomeness that was HtTYD, it may have ruined movies forever for me.

    @Xaeromancer: They didn't quite get their facts down 100%, but of course to do that would involve a lot of explaining the modern day action movie audience wouldn't be too thrilled about. My main beef is that the movie was too short and too fast paced, and not in a good way.

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  5. "Besides, if you do ever hear someone saying anything like that, you should promptly punch them in the eye just on policy."

    Amen.

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  6. I'd take a meh movie over getting tear gassed I'd say.

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  7. When you said you were going to see this, I was curious to see what you're reactions were since I pretty much surmised the same answers. It was to short and not enough depth. Good to see now that I'm not the only one.

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  8. Yep - I don't recall any djinn in my Greek Mythologies. We saw it in 3D - it looked like the main characters were being followed by shadows (to create the faux3D). It sounds like 2D would have been better.
    Still, all-in-all, it was a fun enough film. At least they didn't use 'Hercules' in a Greek myth instead of 'heracles' (a personal peeve).

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  9. See Kick Ass. I just did, and it's probably the best film of the year so far.

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  10. @#2501: I was kinda iffy about Kick Ass, I hear a 12 year old girl gets the crap kicked out of her... :/

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